Marestella’s golden leap rips Olympic q’fying mark

LONG jumper Marestella Torres-Sunang made a strong case for a third consecutive Olympic stint by surpassing the qualifying standard with a winning leap of 6.72 meters on Monday in the Kazakhstan Open.

Sunang achieved the daunting task in windy and wet conditions, sailing past the 6.70m Olympic requirement in her sixth and final jump. She had fouled twice before that.

“We just received the certified results of the women’s long jump in Kazakhstan and it shows Marestella leapt 6.72 meters with the wind recorded at +0.8, well below the legal limit of 2.0 meters per second,” said Philip Ella Juico, president of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa).

Pending confirmation from the International Association of Athletics Federations, Sunang will join marathoner Mary Joy Tabal and Filipino-American hurdler Eric Shauwn Cray in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“We assume she’ll (Sunang) be in the list of official entries together with Eric and Mary Joy,” said Juico.

The IAAF will announce on July 12 the names of all track and field athletes for the Aug. 5 to 21 Summer Games.

Sunang, who also vied in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, actually won her third straight gold medal in recent weeks.

She also took the gold with a leap of 6.47m in a tournament held in Kyrgyzstan and with a 6.52m effort in the Kosanov Memorial, also in Kazakhstan.

According to Juico, Sunang is now ranked 28th in the world. He added that athletics’ three qualifiers will be the biggest from among all local national sports associations that will send athletes to the Olympics.